Coffee grinder-dispensers comprising a base housing an electric motor, with a vertically extending output shaft, connected to a grinder located within a grinding chamber, are well known. A transparent bell-shaped vessel, located at the upper end of the base, receives the coffee beans to be ground, and a closure gate regulates the flow of beans into the grinding chamber. After grinding, the ground coffee, or powder, passes through a conduit, in the housing, into the upper end of a funnel secured to the housing. A stainless steel grid is located in the conduit to reduce the velocity of the coffee powder, so that it flows smoothly through the funnel and is discharged into filters mounted therebelow on rod-like supports secured to the exterior of the housing.
A representative coffee grinder-dispenser is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,668, granted to Giovanni Mazzer on Sep. 27, 2005. The patentee, and the applicant, are the same person. The overall configuration of the known coffee grinder-dispenser is shown in FIG. 2 of the Mazzer patent, which depicts a base (2), an electric motor (4), a vertically extending output shaft (6) projecting upwardly form the motor and secured to the grinder (8) to power same. Cup (10) retains a supply of coffee beans, and closure gate (12) regulates the passage of the coffee beans into the grinding chamber to be ground by grinder (8).
The heat from the relatively large electric motor is not readily dissipated within the confines of the base, and the heat rising from the electric motor adversely impacts upon the organoleptic characteristics of the ground coffee, such as taste and smell. The Mazzer patent does not recognize this problem, and makes no effort to overcome same.
One proposed solution is to secure a cooling fan to the vertically extending output shaft from the motor. The cooling fan thus cools the coffee during the grinding operation, when the motor powers the grinder. While the cooling fan on the vertical shaft has alleviated the heat build-up problem to some degree, the reliance upon such fan has not been completely successful, and, in some instances, has proven to be unreliable. The heat from the electric motor continues to rise upwardly within the housing and negatively impact upon the ground coffee, after the grinding operation has been terminated.